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Shack on!

Some kind of life this one. A brief summary of my year – I battled at my job in Wellington due to ongoing illness until the end of May. I took some time out to relax and get well, I’ve been saying it was about 4 months but I’m not really sure. During this time, to the best of my powers, I worked on the shack. While I didn’t get well during this time, I think I did get a bit better.

I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do with myself in the near future and was scared I wouldn’t have the capability to be employed again, due to the sickness. I wasn’t really looking for a job, but spotted one that looked ok, and it was only for about 6 or 7 weeks. I was pretty sure that if I really looked after myself I’d be able to last in this job, given the short duration. It was kind of a testing time, to see what capabilities I really had – I wasn’t sure.

And I handled it fine! In fact I really liked it. I’m back there next year too. So I am on a Christmas break now that lasts for near on 2 months. My some kind of life line was an expression of the puzzling nature of things, given the year I’ve had, I don’t really need 2 months holiday just now.

I’ve contemplated getting another job for this time. But I really need to get this shack finished, and this is my window. I haven’t done much work on the shack during this work time as I’ve been trying to look after myself.

So, today is the first day of my break and it has been one well used. Paul came out and provided some great help and motivation to get at it. We made the outlines of the walls, threw some axes, and invented a cool new dice game.

Due to skateboarding commitments Paul made his exit. I managed to cut out most of the rest of the vertical wall members, and even sourced some floor wood! This is really happening now.

I’ve got people coming for dinner tomorrow. The house is a mess. Eliminating the mess is going to take up to an hour tomorrow, and that is unfortunate. If things went really well, I think that there is a chance of getting the floor down tomorrow. The grooming of the floor is going to be fun too – planing it then sanding it and oiling it. I had a bit of a practice on one of the floor woods to make sure it wasn’t rimu and it came up nicely.

Some of the alignment of the walls is pretty sloppy. I don’t even care. I’ve got buckled wood as my excuse. And I know once it is all bound together it will be real solid.

So much enthusiasm for this project right now. I can’t wait until tomorrow. I’ve got to be finished by February 3. I shall consider this a goal.